Get the latest tech news
The controversial plan to turn a desert green
A Dutch engineer wants to transform an expanse of arid land into green, fertile land teeming with wildlife — and in the process, change the weather
But in 2016, the course of his career changed when he was pulled into a venture to help the Egyptian government restore shrinking fish populations in Lake Bardawil, a saltwater lagoon in northern Sinai, separated from the Mediterranean by a narrow sandbar. Originally intended to be a belt of trees planted for thousands of miles across the continent’s Sahel region, the initiative has morphed into a “a mosaic of green and productive landscapes” over 11 countries, said Susan Gardner, director of the ecosystems division at the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi. In a project’s quest for a successful finish line, there is a risk that it will opt for fast-growing, non-native species which either don’t survive or become invasive, overtaking the surrounding native plants and damaging wildlife, said Alice Hughes, an assistant professor at Hong Kong University’s School of Biological Sciences.
Or read this on r/technology
